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Dynamics modelling and implementation of an attitude control on an Octorotor

Article  in  Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering · June 2015

DOI: 10.1109/CCECE.2015.7129364

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 Proceeding of the IEEE 28th
Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering
Halifax, Canada, May 3-6, 2015

Dynamics Modelling and Implementation of an Attitude

Control on an Octorotor

S. Jamal Haddadi 1,b, Payam Zarafshan 2,a,*, Farahnaz J. Niroumand b,3

a- Department of Agro-Technology, College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran, Pakdasht, Tehran, Iran
b- Department of Electrical, Computer and IT Engineering, Qazvin Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
*
Corresponding Author Email: p.zarafshan@ut.ac.ir

Abstract – In this paper, an attitude controller is implemented 10], the software and hardware studying, [11-12], and
and studied on an Octorotor flying robot. In this Unmanned Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), [13-14].
Aerial Vehicle (UAV), motors number is extended to eight A coaxial quadrotor robot contains eight rotors which
motors. Also, mechanical and electrical subsystems is designed properly control to preserve the attitude control and the
and performed based on the considered Quadrotor. To this flight stability. The safe and the better flying experience can
end, the robot stability is obtained using the stated controller. be concluded by a stable flight and therefore, a successful
Then, this flying robot is tested under the flight condition on a
task is achieved, [15]. Moreover, Octorotor can be defined
test apparatus. For monitoring the Attitude angles of this UAV,
a PID controller is utilized using Mission Planner software by as an eight-rotorcraft using four arms, eight motors. Since all
USB port. Finally, Implementation and simulation results are the propellers axes of rotation are fixed and parallel so, these
compared for the designed attitude controller in eight motors of Octorotor are coaxially installed, [16].
MATLAB/Simulink. Indeed, by increasing the motors number in a rotorcraft, the
Index Terms – Attitude Control, Octorotor, PID Controller, resultant thrust force is usually increased. In addition, since
Stabilization the coaxial configuration cancel the resulted torque so, more
flight stability is attained by increasing the number of
rotating propeller. As like as the Quadrotor, the Octorotor
I. INTRODUCTION has only four independent inputs (rotor speeds). So, this
flying robot can be considered as an under-actuated system
R ecently, Quadrotor is considered as a robotic system
which has been studied in some researches, [1-4]. In
1907, Quadrotor has been introduced by Breguet-Richet
with six Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) for translational and
rotational movement. Moreover, this results in the highly
states coupling. To this end, the Octorotor has the nonlinear
(Gyroplane No.1). Also, it is reported that they have lifted
dynamics. Therefore, many controllers have been studied to
into the fight, [5]. The control of a quadrotor is
control its position and attitude, [17]. On the other hand, the
accomplished by independently regulating the speed of each
Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers are
rotor. This Design of system is particularly suitable for small
usually used to apply on these flying robots using
UAVs, because it reduces of mechanical convolution of
commercial and open source instruments. To this end, the
rotor and simplifies the control algorithms [6]. Actually, the
attitude stabilization is obtained by a conventional PID
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are usually used for
controller which is placed on these robots. For an instance,
civilian and military applications such as, surveillance,
in [18] an eight-rotorcraft was introduced in which a PID
patrolling for forest fires, traffic monitoring and rescue
controller and a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) were
whereas the pilot risks are frequently high. Moreover,
implemented. Also, the stability proven and the attitude
military applications are presently considered as the lion's
control were studied for this flying robot, [20-22]. It should
part of the UAV market, and this industrial usage is strongly
be noted that these controllers were applied on a linearized
growing. Also, unmanned flying robot can be also profited
model of the flying robot. The system stability can be
in outdoor and indoor goals. In addition, they can work in
effectively attained by the controller if the system is near to
dangerous situation which is hard to work for operators, [6].
the linearization point. But, if the system state drastically
To this end, these robots are lately increased the researcher
varies from this equilibrium situation, the performance
and academician societies interest, and this robot is used for
deteriorates significantly. Hence, these controllers have
many applications. The research on aerial robotics can be
difficulties to encounter perturbations and therefore, they
also continued by the Quadrotors as a usual vehicle in some
can not result in the perfect trajectory tracking, [23]. Also,
implementations such as nonlinear and linear controllers, [7-
Figure (1) shows the stated Octorotor of this paper.
1, 3- MSc Student
2- Assistant Professor

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978-1-4799-5829-0/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
 Figure 1: Considered Octorotor frame
Figure 2: Flight Concept of Octorotor

In this paper, the development of flying robot is focused

based on the stated Octorotor with the capability of Moreover, the Octorotor kinematics of can be extracted as:
identification. Therefore, the subsystem configuration is
Ĭ E = RĬ B (1)
considered. Consequently, dynamics modelling of the
coaxial quadrotor is studied. Next, designing procedure of an
attitude control strategy and its hardware are presented. ȍ E = TȍB (2)
Then, implementation of the designed controller on the
where, 4 E and : E are the position vector and angular
stated rotorcraft is expressed on a 3 DoFs test apparatus. At
last, the obtained results are shown by MATLAB velocity vector in the inertial frame respectively. Also, 4 B
/SIMULINK. is the position vector and : B is the angular velocity vector
in the body-fixed frame. Moreover, R is the rotation matrix
and T is the transfer matrix. Also, the rotation matrix and
II. FUNDAMENTALS OF OCTOROTOR DYNAMICS transfer matrix can be defined as:
Dynamics modelling of a system must be firstly § cșcȥ sijsșcȥ  cijsȥ sijsȥ  cijsșcȥ ·
performed before the controller design of the system, [14]. ¨ ¸
R = ¨ cșsȥ sijsșsȥ  cijcȥ cijsșsȥ  sijcȥ ¸ (3)
Fundamentally, the Octorotor flying robot has the same ¨ -sș ¸
concept with the Quadrotor, [15]. It should be noted that © sijcș cijcș ¹
since there is not any gear set, all of the eight propellers are
directly installed on the motors. Moreover, the rotation axes § 1 sin ij tan ș cos ij tan ș ·
¨ ¸
of propeller are distinctly fixed. Also, the flight concept of T = ¨0 cos ij  sin ij ¸ (4)
this flying robot is shown in Figure (2). As shown in this ¨ 0 sin ij cos ș cos ij cos ș ¸
Figure, Ȧ1 and Ȧ2 are rotational speed of forward direction © ¹
propellers, Ȧ3 and Ȧ 4 are rotational speed of right direction where C and S denote Cos and Sin functions respectively.
propellers, Ȧ5 and Ȧ6 are rotational speed of backward Also, g is the gravity constant. So, the dynamic equations of
motion of the Octorotor flying robot base on the Newton-
direction propellers, and Ȧ7 and Ȧ8 are rotational speed of
Euler equations can be extended as:
left direction propellers respectively. Actually, as same as
Quadrotor, Octorotor is a 6 DoFs rigid body whereas its ­m(v B + ȦB × v B ) = FB
®  (5)
throttle is supplied using eight brushless DC motors. In the ¯IȦB + ȦB ×(IȦ  B ) = IJB
same way, the Octorotor flying robot is a four-input control
system. Also, the gravitational vector and movement state Since the mass distribution of Octorotor flying robot is
vector of the Octorotor can be calculated by considering the symmetrical the inertia matrix is diagonal. Therefore, this
gyroscope effect. So, the dynamic equations of the Octorotor can leads to the simplified dynamic model. It should be
flying robot can be extracted. Indeed, dynamic equations of noted that this model can be also considered for the hover
Octorotor can be calculated as the same with dynamic flight. Thus, ȦE can be substituted with ȦB in this case.
equations of Quadrotor by considering the flight concepts of So, the translational and rotational dynamics of Octorotor
Quadrotor. can be obtained:

723
 ­ § I -I ·  J U A- Internal of Control Loop
°ij = ¨ y z ¸ șȥ  + TP ș Ȧr + 2
° © Ix ¹ Ix Ix An Octorotor has two kinds of motion which three DOFs
° § are for the rotational and three DOFs are for the translation
° I -I · J U motion. By considering Eq. (6), the rotational and
ș = ¨ z x ¸ ȥij-  TP ij Ȧr + 3
° ¨ Iy ¸ Iy Iy translational motions are independent. Therefore, double-
° © ¹
loop control strategy is considered for the Octorotor attitude
° § I -I ·  U 4 (7) and position control (Figure (3)). In fact, the stability and
°ȥ = ¨ x y ¸ ijș +
® © Iz ¹ Iz tracking of the desired Euler angles is attained by the inner
° control loop, whereas regulation of the robot altitude is
° 1
x =  cij sș cȥ + sȥ sij  U1 obtained using the outer control loop. Also, it should be
° m noted that altitude in all of parameter is zero in this paper.
° 1
y =  cij sș sȥ-sij cȥ  U1
°
° m
° 1
z =  cș cij  U1 -g + D z
°
¯ m
where D Z and J TP are the wind disturbance on the height
axes and total rotational moment of the propeller axis
respectively. Also, Ȧr is the total speed or propeller’s
residual speed which is implemented as:
Ȧr = -Ȧ 1+ Ȧ 2 -Ȧ 3+ Ȧ 4 -Ȧ 5 + Ȧ 6 -Ȧ 7 + Ȧ 8 (8)
Moreover, U1 ,U 2 ,U3 ,U 4 or system inputs components are
Figure 3: Assumed control algorithm architecture
attained as:

U1 = b Ȧ12 + Ȧ22 + Ȧ32 + Ȧ24 + Ȧ52 + Ȧ62 + Ȧ72 + Ȧ82 
U 2 = lb  -Ȧ32 -Ȧ24 + Ȧ72 + Ȧ82  (9) The PID control method is designed for rotational
Subsystem, in which the control inputs U1 ,U 2 and U3
U 3 = lb  -Ȧ12 -Ȧ22 + Ȧ52 + Ȧ62 
control the Eight-Rotor craft during hovering, [19]. Three
U 4 = d  -Ȧ12 + Ȧ22 -Ȧ32 + Ȧ42 -Ȧ52 + Ȧ62 -Ȧ72 + Ȧ82  distinct PID controllers for the attitude control is considered
to stabilize roll, pitch and yaw angle. This controller induces
where Ȧi is the angular velocity of the propeller. Moreover, the system states to the rest at the set point or the origin. So,
b and d are the thrust factor and drag factor respectively. the control law can be defined as:
Also, l is the length from the centre to the rotor. It should be
t
de  t 
noted that each rotors are installed at the end of bars, [17]. In
addition, the measurement noise of sensor is assumed as
disturbances in the feedback.
III. CONTROLLER DESIGN
U = K p e  t  + K i ³ e  IJ  dIJ + K d (10)
0
dt
where K p , K i , K d the controller gains. Moreover, the error
signal is defined as the difference of the desired value and
the measured output in each time step as:
Now, the controller design procedure is studied in this eij  t  = ij d  t  -ij  t 
section. So, the control strategy which includes two control eș  t  = ș d  t  -ș  t  (11)
loops is described here. Next, to implement this designed
controller, the necessary hardware configuration for the e ȥ  t  = ȥd  t  -ȥ  t 
Octorotor flying robot must be considered. Actually, a PID
controller can be used which is a well-known controller in So, error reduction is done by the PID controller until the
different tasks. To stabilize the Octorotor when it is not stabilized attitude is obtained as:
stable, the PID controller will decrease or increase the motor t
deij  t 
speed to obtain the stability, [18]. The optimum response U1 = K pij eij  t  + K iij ³ eij  IJ  dIJ + K dij
and settling time for the considered Octorotor will also 0
dt
attained using the PID control system which tunes the robot t
deș  t  (12)
situation. This PID controller is studied for the Octorotor U 2 = K pș eș  t  + K iș ³ eș  IJ  dIJ + K dș
0
dt
flying robot in this section which is an under-actuated
system. Therefore, to ensure the robot stability, a closed-
t
de ȥ  t 
U 3 = K pȥ e ȥ  t  + K iȥ ³ e ȥ  IJ  dIJ + K dȥ
loop controller must be used to control this flying robot. dt
0

724
 IV. ELECTRONIC AND CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION
The electronic section and central electronic board is
designed by MRL team. Data are centralized by the
electronic board from various sensors, [24]. Also, the PID
controller is applied on the Octorotor which its flight data is
monitored in Mission Planner Software. Next, saved data are
exported to MATLAB/SIMULINK.

A- Electronic Design
For processing data is used ATMega2560, which it is the
original controller. Also, An Inertial Measurement Unit
(IMU) that consists Gyro and accelerometer sensor and
compass sensor. In order to combining Gyro and
accelerometer sensor, is used MPU6050 Gyro sensor which
combines a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope on
the same silicon die together. This gyro sensor has an
onboard Digital Motion Processor (DMP) with capability for
processing complex 9-axis motion fusion algorithms.
Moreover, to determine the direction changing, a
HMC5883L compass is placed on the Octorotor.
Figure 5: General hardware architecture

V. ACQUISITIONS OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The designed control strategy is firstly simulated by
MATLAB/SIMULINK. Next, this controller is implemented
on the Octorotor system. As shown in Figure (6), increasing
the regulation speed is performed by the proposed PID
controller. It should be noted that eliminating the
measurement noise and disturbances are done by this
designed controller. Also, due to the angular input, the
situation of yaw angle varies slower which results in the
smoother response.
1
I [ra d ]

-1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
time [s]
1
T [ra d ]

0
Figure 4: Designed electronic board

-1
B- Controller Architecture 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
For the attitude control, all data is taken from the IMU, time [s]
with 100 HZ frequency. Moreover, i2c speed controllers are 0.5
chosen in order to effectively drive eight Brushless Direct
\ [ra d ]

Current (BDC) motors. Furthermore, a USB serial port with 0

57500 bit per second baud rate data is selected to
communicate between the grounds stations and the UAV
-0.5
that sets on the test apparatus with 3DOF. Also, the stated 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
hardware configuration of the stated control system is shown time [s]
in Figure (5).
Figure 6: Attitude angles of Octorotor for PID controller

725
 Also, the implementation results of the considered
controller on the designed Octorotor are attained in this
section. This test apparatus holds the flight with boll
permitting 3 axis rotational motion. The robot which is fixed
on the test apparatus is shown in figure (7). We adjusted the
controller gain parameter considering control energy in real
system. The control is started after the speeds of rotors reach
the hovering conditions. The reference attitude is the zero
state, i.e., the hovering condition. As a result of the
implementation, the Attitude input-output of the Octorotor,
that consists roll, pitch, and yaw angles are similar (Figure
(8)) the robot can stabilize it in roll, pitch and remain within
4 degrees. But the response of yaw was slow and also has a
little big drift range. This is considered a characteristic of the
flight.

Figure 8: Roll angular rate and output response of Octorotor for PID
controller

As shown in Figure (9), using the designed controller,

attitude control and the robot stability are attained without
loss of the manoeuvrability.
12

Figure 7: Implementation test for identifying attitude control on a test 10

apparatus
8
1
U

6
All the tests and manufacturing of this robot is done in
Mechatronics Research Lab (MRL) team in Qazvin Islamic 4
0 2 4 6
Azad University. time [s]
1

0.5

0
2
U

-0.5

-1
0 2 4 6
time [s]

726
 0.5
0 [8]
3
U
-0.5
[9]
-1
0 2 4 6
time [s]
Figure 9: Attitude Control effort of Octorotor for PID controller
[10]
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new flying robot with eight coaxial motors [11]
was considered. Also, designing procedure of the attitude
controller for this robot was presented. Next, this controller
was implemented on the stated Octorotor which was fixed [12]
on a test apparatus. To this end, the USB port was utilized
for connection between UAV and ground station. Resistance [13]
to the external force is one of this Octorotor advantages. In
this regard, designing and implementing procedure of a PID
controller was presented. It was shown that accurately [14]
regulation of the controller coefficients was necessary and
they were dependent to dynamic parameters of the Octorotor
flying robot. The designed PID controller was applied on the [15]
flying robot in the various flight conditions. This was done
while this robot was supplied with sensors in different [16]
situations. At last, it was shown that the flying robot could
properly perform the desired task by implementing this
designed controller.
[17]
[18]
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